Board Thread:Roleplay Forum - Major Events/@comment-25104896-20180629222708/@comment-17703532-20180709054740

(Rei is 4th.)

Takamina rose up from her seat and walked over to the mic, receiving her trophy. "So," she spoke, after taking a bow. "I'm not sure I can follow up on that very well, so I'm sorry, but I'm going to stick to what I had planned to talk about. First and foremost, on both mine and everyone's behalf, thank you so much for supporting this group. A couple of people have already spoken about it, how this is a place where dreams can be realized and renewed. For all of us members, this place means something different, but to me, it's my home away from home. Everyone here are very dear to me, and I am honestly so happy to know all of you. Everyone are supportive of eachother - although sometimes in some peculiar ways - and most people here would never have met if it wasn't for all of you who have chosen to invest something in us and 00, no matter if that something is money, a bit of time, or anything else. So thank you so much for that specifically as well. I have also been asked a lot why I don't like to refer to the vote count as "love" a couple of times since I posted that on social media, and I feel the need to clarify. Every single vote is precious, and it means that someone finds enough reason or likeness to spend actual money to promote a very specific person, and that is the highest form of flattery - and pressure - there is. There is nothing wrong with that, but the problem with using the term "love" happens because people can vote more than one time, and that places a monetary worth on "love", which is a notion I can't quite get behind. Furthermore, who is to say that someone who can cast several votes because they have the economic capabilities for it loves more than someone who may be unable to do so? Or, on the flip side, if someone votes more, are each individual vote worth less so that the amount of "love" is equal? To me, either option doesn't really work, because to me, "love" is immaterial. You can't place a value on it. I can't quite say what a vote and the vote count represents to me yet, because I still haven't come up with something that entirely fits, so for now, to me, a vote is a vote. If I come up with a better answer in the future, I'll go with that. However, if nothing else, the vote count is a measurement of how much 00 has grown. 3 years ago, in SC0123, we had all gathered here. Nervous and far more inexperienced than today, we didn't know what the future had in store. Back then, only the top three got over a million votes. Today, everyone who has ranked has over that vote count. 00 has really grown, and it has granted us, as members, time to grow as well. So, one final time, thank you."